Test Cricket Comes to Wales.

[sirjeremy11]

David Beckham and Jonathon Woodgate play for a team based in Spain.

Are they Spanish now then?

Yes. And Beckham will soon play Manuel in the film version of Fawlty Towers.

 

[Pedro Delgado]

"He's from....Madrid". Doesn't sound right.

 

[Richard]

Michael Vaughan plays for a team based in Yorkshire, but that doesn't make him French.

No, it makes him a Yorkshireman, because he's Yorkshire raised and Yorkshire through-and-through.

 

[Richard]

FCOL Richard, so that means we're kidnapping Beckham from Madrid to play for England?

Err, no, it means nothing of the sort.
I've been at pains to point-out the "kidnapping" thingy isn't really something I believe in.

 

[Richard]

Yeah, you'd think I'd have got that, wouldn't you?

But as I'm utterly devoid of a sense of humour or irony, thanks for pointing it out. & you just stopped short of accusing me of being some kind of little Englander exclusionist. Thanks again.

Yes, I did stop-short, because I don't actually think you are that bad.
I do, though, think you're a bit too defensive about "Englishness", that was clear from the moment we discussed the Mascarenhas case.
I think being English\British is more inclusive than you do.

 

[Richard]

This is a subject I have written on many times over the years (sort of a goto subject) and there is no reason for them not to have their own team.

To say that Scotland and Ireland have considerably deeper cricketing wells than Wales is wrong, wrong, wrong.

Its not even close and Wales would be a stronger team than Bang and Zim if they entered test and ODI cricket right now. Argue if you want but I honestly believe that this must be the next wave of expansion.

Also the reason Glamorgan have been competring in the CC since 1921 rather than Scot or Ire is that there is a considerable cricketing culture in Wales that the others cannot meet.

So... if Wales want their own team (I'm 100% Welsh, BTW) let Wales have their own cricket team.
But... funny thing... last we saw there was a deliberate, concentrated effort to make things more English-Welsh, what with the naming of the Board the "England and Wales Cricket Board" - suggesting that most people are happy with England and Wales being one and the same.
If there really was such strong cricketing culture in Powys, Dyfed, Gwyned and Clywd, don't you think it's possible that they might have their own Minor Counties, rather than all coming together as "Wales Minor Counties"? (And, I might add, rarely having that much success)
If you wanted to create a Wales national cricket team you'd have to do one hell of a lot of wholesale reorganisation - including the effective abolition of Glamorgan's "major county" status.

 

[Richard]

A huge mistake!

Not really - Croft had a very successful Test career by the standards of an English fingerspinner.

 

[Richard]

David Beckham and Jonathon Woodgate play for a team based in Spain.

Are they Spanish now then?

Did they not start playing for teams in their home country?
Did James and Maynard not play for Glam all their careers?

 

[BoyBrumby]

Yes, I did stop-short, because I don't actually think you are that bad.
I do, though, think you're a bit too defensive about "Englishness", that was clear from the moment we discussed the Mascarenhas case.
I think being English\British is more inclusive than you do.

The Mascarenhas case, as you call it, sprang from you not getting a joke I was making. IIRC I said he says "mate" rather too often for a potential English international for my liking, implying he was Australian because of their habit of calling everyone from the Queen down by said epithet.

Not exactly Oscar Wilde, I admit, but hardly grounds for pegging me as a BNP sympathiser!

You're also muddying the waters by saying English/British as if the terms are interchangeable. They aren't. It's perfectly feasible to be a British subject but to also consider yourself (say) a true-blue Aussie, as in Andrew Symonds's case. I don't really want to bang on about what constitutes a national identity for an individual, but there is a difference between being an English-qualified player (like KP) than as English player (like, say, Fred). KP will doubtless represent his adopted country to the very best of his ability, but he's always been candid about his reasons for coming over & if the political wind had blown in a different direction he could be creaming attacks for SA & Natal.

That isn’t to suggest KP or any other England player who represents us in any sport having moved here in adulthood is any less worthy than native born and/or raised players.

 

[marc71178]

Not exactly Oscar Wilde, I admit, but hardly grounds for pegging me as a BNP sympathiser!

You forget this is the man who gets racism from the most tenuous of things - remember the Panesar incident?

 

[aussie]

even Freddie is disappointed that Old Trafford will not have an ashes test in 2009, such a shame...

 

[GIMH]

The northwest has been deprived an Ashes test despite being England's greatest sporting region

What they should do is not play Zimbabwe, and have a 7 test Ashes series.

 

[steds]

Did they not start playing for teams in their home country?
Did James and Maynard not play for Glam all their careers?

Darren Fletcher has played his whole career at Manchester United. Does it make him English?

 

[GIMH]

Darren Fletcher has played his whole career at Manchester United. Does it make him English?

Maybe not, but it sure as hell makes him unpopular

 

[steds]

Maybe not, but it sure as hell makes him unpopular

 

[Langeveldt]

The simple fact of the matter is the NorthWest is a hotbed of cricket.. Wales, to put it bluntly, isnt..